UNDAC Dispatch, December 2023: UNDAC Members Spotlight – Ruth Nana Friba Arthur from Ghana

UNDAC member together with two children in front of a health clinic tent in Afghanistan.
© Ruth Nana Friba Arthur (UNDAC Ghana)

Ruth Nana Friba Arthur – Ghana, is a Coordination Expert with over 23 years working experience in multi-sector disaster preparedness planning and emergency response coordination.  She has worked with the Disaster Management Organization of Ghana since 1999 and has a wide and rich experience in coordinating multi-sector preparedness and response to major national emergencies.

In recent years, I was a member of the National Task Force and focal person for the coordination of humanitarian response to Covid-19 outbreak in Ghana in 2020. Presently, I am the Government focal person and liaison with the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Emergencies in response to massive inundation of nine districts caused by spillage of excess water from the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam.   
 

My journey as an UNDAC member started with the first deployment to Sierra Leone in response to landslide and flooding disaster in August 2017. This was followed by missions to, Nigeria, and Afghanistan in response to flooding and earthquake disasters in July 2018 and August 2022 respectively. My most recent deployment was a CADRI Mission to Zambia to conduct a diagnostic exercise of their disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation systems. The aim of this mission was to make key and relevant recommendations in view of strengthening key areas for effective response and build resilience.

I have attended UNDAC refresher courses and training in OSOCC Operations and on Assessment & Analysis; l have supported facilitation and mentored Inductees at UNDAC trainings in Germany and Kenya in 2019 and 2021 respectively.  l also participated in the INSARAG Africa-Europe-Middle East Regional Earthquake Response Exercise in 2019, in Azerbaijan.  
 

Thirteen years as an active UNDAC member has been an exciting experience. I am privileged and blessed to be part of a global network of colleagues, friends and experts who l can easily fall on to provide critical and needed skills to save lives; they are only a phone call away, easily accessible and readily available. l am looking forward to uplifting humanity globally with UNDAC! 

Ruth Nana Friba Arthur on mission responding to earthquake in Afghanistan, August 2022.